the interplay between formal and informal modes of operating Alison - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Blending, braiding and balancing: the interplay between formal and informal modes of operating

Alison Gilchrist October 2016

Background and motivation

• Community development/engagement
• Networking research and practice
• Importance of informal processes and

relationships – insufficiently valued

• Frictions and tensions at the interface and

points of transition

• Explore what was happening at these junctures
• Gather evidence to inform better policy-making

and practice for people working with communities

Context

• Perennial interest in ‘harnessing’ community

spirit, energy, resources and expertise

• Ideological commitment to ‘small state’,

localism, citizen empowerment and community- led social action - cf Bigger and Stronger Society

discussion paper (June 2015)

• Cuts in public spending, esp. at local levels, so

greater expectations for volunteering and community-level service delivery

• Reductions in statutory services and

professional support for communities

Multi-faceted typology

Sites of interplay

(sometimes with simultaneous and combined modes

• f formal and informal operating)

Interface between communities and large scale agencies Cross-sectoral partnership and co- production arrangements Transitions between different levels of

• rganisational

development

Concepts and ‘fuzzy’ definitions

INFORMAL FORMAL

Unofficial, ‘off- stage’, choice, ‘ad hoc’, fun, inter- personal processes, casual, spontaneous, intuition, relaxed, flexible, emotional Regulations, codes, targets, impersonal, roles and rules, legal incorporation, authority, duty, bureaucracy, ‘red tape’, plan, policy, standards, structure

Methodology

• Grounded theory
• 27 semi-structured interviews

–purposive sampling –snowballing, –range of roles and sectors

• 2 workshops and a group discussion

with Big Local BL reps

• Focus group - sounding board
• Literature review

Key themes: power and participation

• Living democracy
• Organisation development
• Power and politics
• Risks and standards, including

equality and diversity

• Shared thinking
• Time dimensions

Main findings

• Neither a spectrum nor a dichotomy

– dialectical approach needed

• Benefits and disadvantages – two handed approach

– Formal can

• Restrict, delay and hinder
• Curb emotions and personal biases
• Protect and preserve collective goals

– Informal can

• Be liberating and creative
• Include and empower disadvantaged groups
• Allow/mask/perpetuate hidden power imbalances
• Praxis - complicated set of

– judgements, values, skills and strategies – blending, braiding and balancing

Conclusions and implications

• Parity and complementarity of formal and

informal modes

• Quality of relationships matters

– time and trust, ‘human’ interactions

• Optimal, light-touch development
• Engagement that co-evolves

– respectful and responsive

• More flexible, proportionate and ‘grounded’

risk management

Recommendations

Policy

• Informal as valid and

valuable

• Trust and respect

communities

• Be aware of

power/status issues

• Reduce ‘red tape’
• Gather evidence of ‘true’

risks and mitigate them appropriately Practice

• Favour informal modes –

styles and spaces

• Use formality where

functional

• Take an organic approach

to groups and

• rganisations
• Training in participatory

styles

• Fun, food and face-to-

face interactions

Acknowledgements

• All contributors to interviews, focus group

and workshops

• The Trustees of the William Plowden

Fellowship

• Angus McCabe – Third Sector Research

Centre, University of Birmingham

Thank you!

Any questions?

Download the full report from http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/generic/ts rc/documents/tsrc/working- papers/working-paper-136.pdf

Small group topics

• Drawing on your own experience and
• bservations, do the findings and conclusions

make sense?

• What might these mean for policy and

practice?

• Which of the recommendations would you

want to see implemented?

This event was brought to you by Edge Hill University’s cross-disciplinary research and knowledge exchange

• initiative. The Institute is committed to exploring the
• pportunities for cross sector collaboration and co-
• peration and to draw on the experience of

practitioners as well as academic researchers to inform new ways of working and learning.

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